SAN ANTONIO — It was business as usual at the San Antonio Spurs’ practice facility on the morning of Game 3 of the NBA Finals. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich enlightened the assembled media for all of 57 seconds after shootaround and spouted about half as many words.

Turnovers, Pop, how much of an emphasis have you put on keeping them closer to four as in Game 1 as opposed to 17 as in Game 2?

“We didn’t talk about turnovers at shootaround,” Popovich said.

How about ball movement, Pop, how do you keep your precision passing game sharp to create open looks for your shooters? “You pass the ball,” Popovich said, “expeditiously.

“Any other questions?”

One giant one is how San Antonio’s Big Three will bounce back from an awful Game 2. Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili combined to go 10-for-33 from the floor with nine turnovers.

“I expect them to play better than they did last game, obviously,” said Spurs sharpshooter Danny Green, who is 9-for-14 from beyond the arc in the first two games. “A big bounce back? Yeah, I’m hoping for it. … Timmy wasn’t too happy with himself, he’s coming in and getting extra shots, Tony as well, coming in and getting extra shots. Manu, they all have pride in themselves. There’s a reason why they’ve won in the past, they’re competitors, they compete and they’re perfectionists, so they’re going to continue to work until they get things right and get them perfect.”

One issue is creating more space for Parker to operate. The Heat threw different looks at him in Game 2, crowding him and taking away lanes. Green said the Spurs have to set better screens and re-screen to help pop Parker free and allow him to better challenge Miami’s big men inside.

Parker smiled and said he’s not worried.

“I’ll figure it out,” Parker said. “That’s what players do, you have to figure it out and that’s my intention, to play better and figure it out. I can play better, I can make quicker decisions. As a team we can all help each other out.”

Defensively, the Spurs — primarily Kawhi Leonard and Green — have done a good job guarding LeBron James, limiting him to 18 and 17 points in the first two games, respectively, after he averaged 29.0 ppg in the East finals. Still, the MVP is averaging close to a triple-double (17.5 ppg, 13.0 rpg, 8.5 apg) and was key in the pick-and-roll with Mario Chalmers (team-high 19 points) during Miami’s massive 33-5 surge to run away with Game 2.

“You’re not going to limit a guy’s impact like that,” Green said. “A guy like Lebron James is the best player in the world for a reason. He impacts the game in so many different ways — defense, rebounding, passing, blocking shots. So far we’ve done a decent job on him. Yes, we’ve limited him from not scoring 30, 40 points, but he’s still impacted the game many different ways. We want to continue to do that, but also try to limit the role players from putting big numbers on us.”

43 Comments

Danny Green and Gary Neal were unbelievable. Mike Miller tried to counter, but that was never going to be enough. Leonard was also superb, particularly on the defensive end. The Spurs have young players who play like veterans, as is the norm for San Antonio. Miami doesn’t have any of those types of players. Norris Cole can give them energy, but he doesn’t have the savvy that Pop’s young players do. The problem with having all those superstars in Miami is that they have to rely on getting veterans willing to take minimum pay, they don’t have enough cap space to try and get up-and-coming young talent. Past LeBron, Bosh, Cole, the rest of the group are aging quickly. During this off-season, Riley has his work cut out for him.

This is why I predict the Spurs will go on to win the series, although I think the next games will be much closer. It’s not just the stars. Role players emerge and give you a couple of victories, which could be the difference in who wins the Finals. And the Spurs are so much deeper and definitely have more firepower off their bench than Miami does.

The Spurs are fine. They dont overreact and panic. If you think their in panic mode you clearly haven’t watched them play long enough. Miami may walk in there over confident due to their margin of victory. Duncan manu and parker will do what they do. The bench will do what they do and all these people just now noticing the Spurs as if they just got here will be like huh.
Career beasts. Good series either way. Redemption and send a message game incoming. Stay tuned basketball fans.

Wrong. Miami is a team that looks to continue attacking their opponent till they tire out and cannot function normally. They aren’t the type to just think they can just come in beat the Spurs by 20+ again, considering who they are up against.

It doesn’t matter what anybody says, the SPURS are going to win the series because of COACH POP. That game 2 blowout wouldn’t have got up to 27 if POP did not gave up right at the beginning of 4th Qrt. He saw the tempo of the game at that moment and there is nothing any coach can do to stop MIAMI, so he let it go and rest his old threes…smart decision. The SPURS will bounce back tonight. GO SPURS!

Time is by my side…Those old fellas can’t stop LBJ and Chalmers and the Bird-man anymore…..same thing with OKC last ear , they cant compete fast drive teams.
The win they had , because Bosh pretending himself a #-P shooter and a lucky shot by Parker. The Miami win was a blowout …Yes Miami is in a Swarming gear drive.
Miami 6 – 2.
Miami brings its talents to South Beach again.

Spurs can`t stop the Heat? Please review game 1, unless your telling the home team is supposed to lose game 1 in the NBA finals. The Heat is a team bought to win championships, the Spurs are a team built to championships.

Yes I watched game one and two… So 8 quarters have been played Miami has won or tied 7 of them… So Spurs have won one quarter, and lucky for them it was the 4th quarter of game one… So ya I’d agree Spurs can’t stop the Heat…

Let`s be real? You need to be realistic, so if your Heat won 7 out of 8 quarters and it amounts to an even series? You better hope the Spurs don’t win any more quarters. Winning is winning, now that’s real.

The Spurs are under immense pressure since the HEAT have not lost 2 in a row since January; the only way the Spurs can possibly do this is if they win the next 3 at home, since coming back to Miami will be a nightmare for them.

SPURS IN 5 FOR NUMBER 5.DOESNT MATTER HOW YOU SLICE IT BU THE SPURS WILL TAKE THIS ONE FOR SURE.AS LONG AS WE HAVE CLEAN OFFICIATING ALL WILL BE SAID AND DONE IN FIVE FOR THE SPURS FOR NUMBER FIVE.DUNCAN CAN GO OUT WITH A BANG.PLAYOFF WINS COUNT LIKE REG SEASON WINS EXCEPT PLAYPFF WINS AMOUNT TO A CHIP AT THE END OF IT ALL.BLOWOUT OR ONE POINT THERE IS A CLER DEFINITION.ONE TEAM LOST AND ANOTHER WON.SPURS COULD WIN BY ONE POINT IN THE NEXT THREE GAMES AND IT WOULD STILL NOT AMOUNT TO THE LOSS POINTS HEAT HANDED US BUT THE ULTIMATE IS THE CHIP.WHO WINS FOUR FIRST.LEBRON IS A GREAT PLAYER SO I HOPE THE NBA REALIZE HE DOESNT NEED RIGGED GAMES TO WIN.HIS TIME WILL COME WHEN HE CAN DOMINATE .NOW THERE STILL IS COMPETITION SO LET THE GAMES PLAY OUT FAIRLY.NO KINGS AND QUEENS OR COURTJESTERS IN THE NBA,JUST PLAYERS WITH DIFF TALENTS SO LETS STOP TAGGING PLAYERS SO AS TO GIVE THEM CHIPS .TIMMY IS SAID TO BE THE GREATEST PF BUT WHO IS PLOTTING TO GIVE HIM A TITLE?WHO DID SO FOR EWING?NO ONE.IVERSON PERHAPS?NO ONE.KARL MALONE?NO ONE.SO WHY SHOULD WE START DOIN IT FOR SOME KID WHO JUST STROLLS IN AND SAYS HE IS ROYALTY AND DESERVES 7 RINGS?HORRY FLOATED AROUND THE RIGHT WAY FOR HIS.LET EVERY PLAYER DO THE SAME AND STOP THE RIGGING.IF YOU WANNA RIGG FOR A CHIP SEND THOSE STARS TO SMALL MARKET TEAMS AND BOOST THE TV RATINGS FOR THOSE MARKETS WHILE YOU AT IT.BIG MARKETS ALREADY LOVE BASKETBALL.ITS THE SMALL MARKETS THAT NEED THE CHIPS TO GET INTO THE SCENE

Awesome, your post makes much more sense now that you’ve written it with caps. Spurs in 5? Did you not see last game…Lebron 17, Wade 10, Bosh 12. And you were 27 down. As a Spurs fan you should hope you can get it done in 7 beating the Heat 3 in a row is not gonna happen with Duncan making shots off balance and Ginobili shooting bricks from 3.

Miami heat needs to continue to choke tony parker and also make it tough on ginobli. They also need to out-hustle duncan on the boards. Game 2 was ok but miami can still do better. And lebron cannot miss lay offs like that( he missed like 3 lay ups and couple of ally oops). Tiring spurs is the one of the keys to winning this series and miami needs to hem inn on it.

The pressure on the Spurs is not just to win game 3, but to have at least 2 wins at home. They can’t go back to Miami with the Heat leading 2-3. The last loss and the manner how its done its someone expected. But a close game/blowout wouldn’t really matter. Its all about winning 4 games… actually now its just all about winning 3 games.

Do not worry Heat fans. Danny Crawford is officiating the game tonight. The Heat are undefeated in the playoffs when he officiates for a reason. No need to even watch tonight. I wish I had contact with Vegas because I would put a million dollars down on the Heat winning.